خبر فرش: سوريا تمتلك مفاعل نووى بمساعدة كوريا الشمالية

Quote: Israel strike 'targeted Syrian nuclear reactor' By Matthew Moore and agencies Last Updated: 2:29pm BST 14/10/2007 Israel's mysterious air strike in the Syrian desert last month was aimed as destroying a partially-constructed nuclear reactor, according to reports in the US. Israel has not given any details on the operation in Syria The reactor's design was similar to a North Korean facility, the New York Times quoted US and Israeli intelligence sources as saying, fuelling fears of nuclear co-operation between two members of George W Bush's "axis of evil". Mystery has surrounded the target of the Sept 6 strike by Israeli F15 long-rang attack aircraft, with the Israeli military initially refusing to confirm or deny whether any attack took place. Syria issued a lukewarm complaint immediately afterwards but has not sought to make it a diplomatic issue, apparently reluctant to draw attention to the facility that had been destroyed. According to the New York Times, the Bush administration was aware of Israeli plans to take out the reactor, and divided over whether this was the best approach. advertisementThe newspaper reported that the Syrian facility was closer to completion than a similar Iraqi reactor destroyed by the Israelis in 1981, but it was still thought to have been years from producing nuclear fuel that could have been turned into weapons-grade plutonium. The newspaper said its intelligence sources refused to be drawn on Pyongyang's connection to the alleged nuclear facility, but it is known that a North Korean freighter docked in the Syrian port of Tartous days before the strike. An Israeli on-line data analyst, Ronen Solomon, found an internet trace for the 1,700-tonne cargo ship, Al Hamed, which showed the vessel started to off-load what Syrian officials categorised as "cement" on Sept 3. Both Israel and the White House refused to comment on the New York Times story. Syria and Israel have fought major wars on three occasions, in 1948, 1967 and 1973, as well as numerous other skirmishes. The two nations remain formally at war although an uneasy calm has largely held for the past three decades.